Derek's Hidden Talent
by QueenOfTheSupernaturals
Summary: It's just a calm day at the rebuilt Hale House. Everyone's spread out around the house and yard enjoying the cooler July weather. Derek is listening to music as he does research since Stiles is busy. Apparently Stiles isn't the only one with a habit of "fidgeting". Or where Derek is secretly good at the drums. How had the pack never noticed? AU!Erica & Boyd are alive/(Peter's nice)


**Author's Notes: I'll be honest, I started writing this at 1am while listening to the song ****Bang Dem Sticks ****by Meghan Trainor. So this is a half baked idea that I hope somebody likes. Let me know if you think I could take this anywhere, otherwise, thank you for reading!**

It was about midsummer (July) in Beacon Hills, and everything felt perfect and right to Derek. Most of the McCall pack was home from their various schools across the country. The pack had taken to spending most of their time at the recently rebuilt Hale House. There were two permanent residents of the Hale House, Derek and Peter. Though, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd had their own rooms in the house for when they were home. There was also an extra guest room, but it was barely ever used when the pack was all together.

Today, Stiles, Scott, Malia, Isaac, Erica, Boyd, Derek, Lydia and Peter were lounging around the Hale House. Pack members were all scattered around the house and the yard. Scott and Malia were sharing a couch in the living room, watching a movie and cuddling.

Erica, Isaac, and Boyd were all messing around in the backyard. They had started out sparring, but it hadn't taken long for it to dissolve into play fighting (roughhousing). When they finally stopped, the three of them were all sprawled out on their backs in the grass, chatting about whatever came to mind. Isaac would even occasionally point out certain clouds to Erica as they imagined what shape the cloud was taking.

Stiles, Lydia, Derek, and Peter were all sat on different parts of the porch. Stiles was sitting on the porch swing, working on some online homework for his summer class. Lydia was sitting at the edge of the porch with her legs dangling over the side, as she read the most recent book she had acquired.

Peter sat on the on the wide steps that led down from the porch to the sprawling green yard. He sat on the second step from the top, his back braced against the railing and his legs stretched out across the stair. Peter—similar to Lydia—was reading a book, but the book he was reading was one that he had recently rediscovered from the Hale Vault.

Derek was seated on the opposite end of the porch swing to Stiles. He had one leg up on the swing, bending at the knee, his laptop placed on the seat of the bench swing—between his leg and the edge—and the other leg draped off the side of the swing. Derek was doing some research—which he normally wouldn't be doing since Stiles was home, but he knew Stiles was currently doing work for an online class—on pixies and how to get rid of them. The pack had started having a pixie problem in the reserve and needed to find a way to get rid of them.

As Derek worked on the research, he had put in earbuds and was listening to some music. Derek's music preference was something he knew he would get shit for if the rest of the pack actually found out. Teasing him about it being part of his "Bad Boy" image, when he just enjoyed some good old classic rock. Derek was firm in his belief that you couldn't go wrong with bands like ACDC, Scorpion, Kansas, Asia, CCR, and a few others from that era.

Throughout his time researching, Derek had had multiple times where he just had to stop scrolling, and skimming, and actually read the information on his screen. In those moments, Derek's hands seemed to tap along to the song he was listening to right then. Derek had two pencils and a notebook with him, besides his laptop.

At some point in Derek's serious reading, his hands had started drumming with the song he was listening to. Hot Blooded by Foreigner, playing in his ears as he absently used his pencils to drum along to the song, perfectly, on his jean-clad thighs.

Derek hadn't played the drums in years. But to him it was hard not to go along with the music whenever his hands were free. He had loved playing the drums, even though most people wouldn't have thought it would be good with his super-wolf-hearing, but that didn't matter to Derek.

Due to super-wolf-hearing, Peter could hear Derek as he played along to what Peter thought he recognized as Derek's favored Foreigner song. Peter let a small smile on his lips as he watched his nephew. Peter knew about Derek's proficiency for playing the drums, and had been one of the few wolves in the Hale pack to actually encourage it, before the fire. He continued to listen to his nephew as he returned to reading his book.

The second person to notice what Derek was doing was Stiles. Stiles could feel the swing move under him, and knew it wasn't him, since tapping his foot wasn't his current mode of fidgeting. When he looked over at Derek, he could see that at some point Derek had started playing an imaginary drum set to the song he was listening to.

This amused Stiles greatly, and he just had to figure out what song Derek was listening to that had brought this out in Derek. As stealthily as possible, Stiles reached out to Derek's laptop, grabbed the end of the earbuds that was connected to the computer, and lightning quick, yanked it out of the laptop. Suddenly, Hot Blooded by Foreigner was playing rather loudly from Derek's laptop.

Derek didn't even bother to stop playing along with the song when he had felt Stiles shift to yank out his earbuds. He just kept playing in perfect time with the song, eyes still closed. Derek could guess that everyone in the yard was probably staring over at him now, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

When the song finally ended, Derek opened his eyes and gave a sheepish look around at everyone in his yard. "Sorry?" he says questioningly.

Peter laughs, "How is it that you haven't practiced in years and you are still able to be in perfect time with that song?"

"Because you know as well as I do that Foreigner was one of my mother's favorite bands." Derek told Peter. Derek had loved the song because his mother had, and he had precious little left of his mother.

"Wait! Derek plays the drums!?" Stiles exclaimed.

"Yeah, Stiles. You didn't notice how he has a habit of tapping whenever he needs something to do with his hands?" Lydia replied.

Derek looked at Lydia with first shock, which quickly faded—it was Lydia after all—before saying, "I didn't think anyone besides Peter would've noticed it."

"Of course, I noticed. If Stiles didn't notice, it's like mandatory that I notice." Lydia stated matter-of-factly.

The group of werewolves in the grass had all turned to focus on the group on the porch. Erica was the first of the group in the grass to join their conversation, "You weren't the only one to notice, Lyds." Then she said to Stiles, "It's okay, Batman. Boyd and Isaac were betting that he played guitar. Pay up, Boys," Erica said gleefully.

"Actually, before the fire, my dad was teaching me how to play guitar. I still remember some, even if I haven't even held a guitar in a while." Derek told the group sheepishly. Isaac grinned up at Derek in thanks. While Boyd just seemed vaguely amused.

The seven pack members continued to discuss Derek's musical abilities and music in general. Peter, Derek, Stiles, and Boyd all found that they had similar tastes in music. The four of them enjoying mostly classic rock from the 60s up to the 80s. While Erica and Isaac both liked enjoyed rap, and electronic music. Lydia's taste in music was the most unique. She admitted that she enjoyed listening to most of the currently popular music, but she had to listen to classical music when doing homework or research.

It wasn't until dinner time that their discussion was interrupted. Scott had walked over to the door to the porch and stuck his head out to look at the rest of the pack, "Hey, are we ordering dinner anytime soon? Malia and I are hungry, I don't know about you guys, though."

"Uh. Oh. Yeah. Does everyone want their usual pizza order?" Derek asked the group around him. He got an affirmative from everyone in the group before heading inside to call in their ridiculously long order.

Derek would probably never admit it, but he really really enjoyed these domestic moments with his pack. He cherished them because he knew from first-hand experience that his pack could be taken from him in the blink of an eye. He missed the domesticity of his childhood before the fire. If he was honest, though, he knows now that he wouldn't trade anything in the world for these moments with his found pack.

Even if he wasn't technically the Alpha, it made him happy to take care of his younger pack members, and he would take care of them for as long as they would allow him to. Derek sighed contentedly at that thought, before placing his phone back in his pocket—having finished ordering their pizza a minute ago—and walk back out to the porch and backyard and his pack.

He would gladly listen to them argue about music for the rest of the evening, and most likely, eventually join in the discussion to defend Stiles or throw a sarcastic comment in Peter's direction. Everything was as it should be, and it felt perfect.


End file.
